Commercial Vehicles Busbar Cooling Concepts
Publicerad
Författare
Typ
Examensarbete för masterexamen
Master's Thesis
Master's Thesis
Modellbyggare
Tidskriftstitel
ISSN
Volymtitel
Utgivare
Sammanfattning
With the paradigm shift in transport, the emergence of sustainable technology has
gained emphasis over the past few years. In an effort to create an emission-free
world, BEVs are focused, and electric trucks are no exception. The heavy need for
power in trucks leads to the overall heating of the busbars and, eventually, a gradual
loss in current carrying capacity. The integration of a cooling concept along with
busbars adds to the power junction box’s weight, cost, and performance and serves
as the project’s background. There is a need to effectively cool down busbars and
increase their operating temperature while considering weight and cost parameters.
The project follows a systematic product development approach from requirement
specification to concept selection and prototyping of the selected concept. The process was applied to redesign and optimize the existing cooling concept for busbars
at Volvo Trucks in terms of material selection, concept design, and performance,
accompanied by the simulation to validate the results. Various concepts for cooling
were explored and mapped out in the idea-generation table, with the decision to
pursue further development of direct liquid cooling accompanied by different crosssections and material selection for the busbars. These comprehensive results are
further justified through thermal and fluent simulations to evaluate the maximum
temperature, thermal conductivity, and safety.
The final concept consists of a C-shaped busbar attached to an aluminum coolant
tube underneath it. The hollow geometry profile of the aluminum tube enables
direct cooling while being insulated with an electrical insulation layer to prevent
contact between the coolant and the current-carrying copper busbar. The final concept achieved a reduction of 18.8% in the maximum temperature of the busbar. The
final design also attained a weight of 45.4% compared to the existing design due to
the employment of aluminum material. The material cost is reduced as the solid
copper busbar is replaced with copper and a cheaper material option of aluminum,
constituting the same electrical density while minimizing the weight. Hence, the
thesis has validated employing a direct cooling method with proper material combinations and safety considerations to improve the cooling efficiency in a busbar.
Beskrivning
Ämne/nyckelord
busbar, cooling, simulation, optimization, material selection, electric vehicles, product development, current capacity, thermal conductivity, safety, electric truc